Back in 2005, Bridget and I traveled around Peru with a small group of other foreign travelers that included a grandmotherly English woman named “Paddy,” who took interest one day in learning that I covered politics.

She asked me why I enjoyed it so much. I told her I found politicians an interesting cast of characters who were kind of like journalists.

“How’s that?” she prodded.

“They tend to be a quirky, slightly crazy bunch, with oversized personalities and inflated egos,” I cracked.

She laughed. It wasn’t until the last day of the trip that I found out why. Paddy Hunt was the wife of a member of Great Britain’s House of Lords.

So, in this spirit — and considering that my Michigan political reporting career has lasted exactly one month longer than City Pulse — I’m sharing my top 10 list of most interesting Lansing-area politicians I’ve had the pleasure of covering these last 10 years.

1. Virg Bernero — You love him or you hate him. He loves you or he hates you, and there just isn’t a lot of in between with Lansing’s fiery mayor. The thin line separating the two is easily crossed. It’s kind of like the line holding back what this opinionated pol really thinks.

Bernero’s bombastic rhetoric explodes out of his mouth with such force, the cable news networks are tripping over themselves to get their cameras in front first. It makes for great copy on the campaign trail, which he has traversed five times in the 10 years City Pulse has published.

2. Melissa Sue Robinson — Born Charles Edward Staelens Jr., Robinson became Lansing’s very visible embodiment of gender reassignment surgery, a decision that landed her on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” In hindsight, her multiple runs for office (mayor, City Council, state Senate, school board) were less about her scant qualifications for public office and more about raising public awareness and acceptance of transgendered individuals.

3. Judge Hugh Clarke — If “want” reflects how well Clarke does on the 54A District Court, the former Lansing School Board president may be the best ever to don the black robe. After multiple unsuccessful runs, Clarke gambled away his law practice for a judicial appointment the attorney general argued should have lasted only 10 days. The state Supreme Court ultimately disagreed.

The appointment ultimately proved two things: Gov. Jennifer Granholm had good legal advice and the Lansing School Board is just as, if not more, dysfunctional without him in charge.

5. Dale Abronowitz — The unsuccessful 2005 mayoral candidate only managed 10 percent of the primary vote, but his raw, home-spun straight-talk style earned him a certain rabble-rousing following that nearly resulted in his own personal and financial ruin. Abronowitz took his numerous union grievances to the brink before agreeing to bury the hatchet in exchange for keeping his job as a city public works employee.

6. Sen. Rick Jones — The legislator intent on “saving Christmas” by pledging to rename the Capitol’s holiday-time pine tree after the Christian holiday is a living, breathing example of taking Republican populist politics to the next level. The media-friendly Jones wanted his pro-Taser bill moved so badly he allowed himself to be tasered in a House committee to prove it wasn’t deadly.

Whatever the former Eaton County sheriff is doing works. He gets his legislation passed. Nobody credible (Democrat or Republican) runs against him and he’s somehow avoided the state’s ridiculous recall craze.

7. John Pollard — Say what you will about the city’s most knowledgeable “gadfly,” you’d rather have Pollard throwing his verbal axe at someone other than you. He pays attention. He does homework and he’s relentless. While his own political aspirations to the Lansing City Council fell short, Pollard’s recall effort against Bernero went farther than most people envisioned it would.

8. Mark Grebner — The area’s longest serving Ingham County commissioner coined the wonderfully self-depreciating campaign slogan, “No worse than the rest.” Even if the phrase is correct, it’s nothing short of amazing that this quirky political genius (who once owned a pet pig in downtown East Lansing) wins in a Michigan State University-dominated district despite not having been a student since the early ‘70s.

9. Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer — Maxim magazine ranked her the 8th hottest politician in the world, for crying out loud. Who wouldn’t take that? But beyond the beauty, Whitmer is a sharp knife who will quickly overmatch a political adversary. Add in her highly charged oratory skills and it’s no wonder she’s viewed as the future of the Michigan Democratic Party.

10. Kathie Dunbar — No joke, the Lansing City Council’s resident comedian is the body’s most strident Bernero supporter, even though the mayor preferred her chief opponent, Bob Johnson, in her first campaign.

The forward thinking, executive director of the South Lansing Community Development Center’s openness to new ideas and approachable personality make her the darling of progressives and effective to boot.

(Kyle Melinn is editor of the Capitol newsletter MIRS. E-mail him at melinn@lansingcitypulse.com)